MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WPDE) — Tourism is a vital part of the economy along the Grand Strand.
Some businesses have been telling ABC15 that all summer the season was slower than normal.
ABC15 sat down with the CEO and Chief Marketing Officer for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce to talk about tourism numbers and the trends they are seeing.
For the third quarter, hotel occupancy rates are up two percent from last year.
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While short-term rentals are down seven percent, there are some national tourism trends that the Chamber calls concerning.
It even has them re-adjusting their marketing strategy.
“I think we would be blind if we didn’t have some level of concern out there right? There’s big economic drivers that we can’t control but we’re working hard here to drive tourism to the Grand Strand,” said Tracy Conner, the Interim CEO & President of MB Area Chamber of Commerce. “Myrtle Beach is still the number one tourist destination along the East Coast, and we’ve done a great job of branding Myrtle Beach, but we have to continue on those same efforts.”
Conner said they’re working hard to ensure it stays that way, despite recent national trends impacting tourism like a spending report from Visa.
“Visa has given us a report that restaurants are seeing less card swipes and less spending and there’s an increase in with grocery store spending,” said Conner.
This means people are eating out less and being more selective about when they go out to eat.
The Chamber is working with restaurants to increase repeat visitations.
They’re also changing their advertising to encourage people to spend more money while they’re here.
While Myrtle Beach has been known as a budget-friendly destination, the Chief Marketing Officer for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce said budget travelers aren’t traveling.
“What’s different is the economy traveler has fallen out, everyone else has stayed in the typical chain scale that they typically do. People want to travel if they have the means to travel they’re going to travel and they’re not going to sacrifice on the accommodations. But what they are willing to do is sacrifice on eating out or attending attractions,” said Stuart Butler, the Chief Marketing Officer for MB Area Chamber of Commerce.
Butler told ABC15 that, as a result, high-end and midscale hotels have fared better than economy hotels along the Grand Strand this year.
However, new data shows that many of those economy travelers planned to travel in the next six months, which could make for a big fall season.
“We’re actually seeing the fall demand is really really strong and one of the signals we look at is intent to travel in the next six months. We’re actually seeing for that economy traveler, their intent to travel for the next six months is higher than it was last year. And so, what we believe is going to happen is that some of these folks that couldn’t afford to travel in the summer when rates were at an all-time high, are they going to travel in the fall time? We think quite a few of them may do,” said Butler.
To keep visitors coming, the Chamber is working hard to turn Myrtle Beach into a year-round destination, while strategically adding events to make that a reality.
“We believe that Myrtle Beach has the climate, and the resources, and amenities to become a year-round destination,” said Butler.
Conner told ABC15 that they will continue to adjust their strategies based on data and current tourism trends, but right now they have a clear plan.
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“We’ve got to continue to drive demand for our market and drive quality visits to our market. So, visitors book earlier, spend more, and stay longer,” said Conner.
As for the Accommodations Tax, which is generated by hotels, numbers from the City of Myrtle Beach show that 2024’s fiscal year is up around 45% from a pre-pandemic year.
But 2024 is down slightly from 2023’s fiscal year.
All fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30.
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